Tony`s Story

By Laurie Taylor

Tony has been a regular of Woolloomooloo for around ten years. During this time he has frequented our café and Op-shop and attended our barbecues and other activities on offer. He’s always been friendly, respectful and quite gentle natured.

Tony is also a drug user who has been in and out of prison multiple times. He has an adult daughter who is estranged from him and was recently released again from prison straight into homelessness. Fortunately, due to our history and relationship with him, he came straight to HopeStreet for support.

Tony told us he could no longer cope with rough sleeping, wanted to stop his drug use and wanted to “do something different with his life” but acknowledged that crime is “all he knows.” We were able to secure accommodation for a week in a local hostel for him while we worked to secure a long term solution for his housing needs.

Along with accommodation, HopeStreet is also helping Tony with emergency food, referrals for financial counselling, a No- Interest Loan and looking at short courses for him to enrol in to keep him busy whilst giving him ideas of what to pursue in the future.

This week, Tony came and thanked us for organising his accommodation as he said he “couldn’t have coped with the cold” we have had the last few nights. He has also been dropping by HopeStreet each day to say ‘Hi’ and see if there is anything he can do to assist with volunteering.

On his list of goals is his desire to re-connect with his adult child. To assist him with this, and other areas of grief, he is accessing free counselling through HopeStreet. With these resources at hand, and through generous donations, we are able to support a person through every challenge and assist them to reach their true potential.